12 Days of Festive Nails: Day 11 – String of Lights

December 21, 2014

Christmas lights bring a lot of memories for me…

Since I can remember, it has been a tradition to visit a house in our City, which is decked with thousands of beautiful, dancing lights. We even have a video of my Mom and I on the news when I was just a toddler, enjoying the sights. It’s always exciting every year to see what new feature is added to the bright spectacle. My favourite has always been a dragon that seemed to slither across the lawn.

I also remember my Mom and I would wear gloves to try and wrangle the string of lights around our Christmas tree. Those branches would leave our hands scratched and battered. Thank goodness for the invention of pre-lit trees!

One year we even had singing lights. Oh my parents loved them (NOT). As a child, I couldn’t wait to burst out of my bed, run down the stairs and play Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly, first thing every morning.

I can remember my Dad standing outside on a ladder in bitter temperatures to decorate our house with white lights. But as tradition states – it had to be done and he was a trooper year after year.

Without festive lights, Christmas just wouldn’t be the same. There’s something nostalgic about walking or driving down a street and seeing the spirit of the holidays. A tree wouldn’t quite look the same without twinkling lights. Imagine if people didn’t decorate their houses. OR if neighbourhoods were decorated all year round! How absurd! Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas. It would lose it’s magic!

So after my quick rant about why I love Christmas and the lights that come with it, you can imagine my reaction when I saw this manicure on Pinterest. I HAD to recreate it. How could I do an entire festive nails series without including one that screams Christmas?

I’m not the handiest with nail stripers and I was afraid my lines would be horrendous, so I came up with the idea to use some thread. I would have rather used black, but navy blue was all I had on hand, and it worked just as well.

I painted my nails white. But before the polish had a chance to dry, I laid the thread over top and gently pressed it down. I trimmed the excess with a pair of nail scissors.

Using my trusty skewers, I created red, green, yellow and blue dots to mimic bulbs.

The spacing and placement of these dots were totally random.

Within the first couple of hours of wearing this manicure in public, I received three compliments. I think they’re adorable! And part of me now wishes Christmas occurred all year-round so I can wear this manicure every day for an entire year.

ABOUT ME

Welcome to my little nest on the Internet and thanks for stopping by! My name is Kelly (not Birdy…that’s a nickname) and I launched Beauty by Birdy in 2014 as an outlet to combine two passions: writing and lipstick. While my posts primarily feature product reviews, makeup looks and beauty tips, I sometimes dabble in DIYs and share easy, healthy recipe ideas.